Kings Give Up on Enforcer Crowder

All signs of right wing Troy Crowder vanished in the dressing room by the time the Kings finished practice at the Forum on Tuesday.

No equipment. No name plate.

Crowder, as it turned out, played his last game for the Kings on Saturday against Dallas. The bringing-him-out-of-retirement experiment ended after 44 games over two seasons. This season, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound enforcer had one goal and 42 penalty minutes in 15 games.

“I didn’t feel he fit into our plans,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “I don’t think he got as much ice time as maybe I would have liked to get him. The times he was out there, he really didn’t make anything happen. It’s not fair to him or to the team to just have him here for the sake of being around.”

Crowder, 27, will be put on waivers today, according to King General Manager Sam McMaster, and if he goes unclaimed, the team will try to buy out his $300,000 contract.

Crowder signed with the Kings last season after not having played since early in the 1991-92 season because of back problems.

“Right now, no one has called,” said McMaster, who sent word around the league regarding Crowder’s availability.

Said Robinson: “I just wasn’t happy with the things [Crowder] was getting done. He’s got to be a presence out there. We just didn’t want him here to fight. I feel we have other guys to do as good a job.”

King Notes

Left wing Eric Lacroix is eligible to return from his second suspension--five games for a checking-from-behind incident against Islander defenseman Dennis Vaske. “It did cost a lot,” Lacroix said of losing salary because of the suspensions. “The first time was $7,800, now it’s up to $35,000. But I’m not going to change my style. I still don’t feel it was a dirty play.”